Watch: Bindi Irwin Brings Audience To Tears With Emotional Tribute To Late Father

Bindi Irwin provided an emotional performance in her Dancing With the Stars tribute to her father, the late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin. She and dance instructor Derek Hough danced to the song Every Breath You Take, with her performance earning the couple their first perfect 10 in the season.

The theme of the night was “most memorable year.” Irwin said that year for her was 2006, when her father was killed while filming a segment swimming with stingrays. Now 17, the teen was only eight years old when she lost her father.

“It took a really long time to understand what actually happened,” she said with tears in her eyes. “For the rest of my life, I’ll kind of feel like he’s going to come home.”

She said she also feels like his spirit lives on, and that her father has never left her.

Irwin said she and her father were inseparable. She wanted to be just like him. Irwin talked during the show’s interview about going on a lot of adventures with him and vividly remembers holding the taped head of a crocodile.

“Those are the best times of my life,” Bindi Irwin said.

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The teen became emotional while rehearsing the contemporary piece, and stopped several times to cry on her dance partner’s shoulder. Hough wanted to incorporate some childlike elements to the dance, including where she holds his hand as a baby does – by just grabbing one finger.

“Oh my gosh,” Irwin said, breaking into tears. “I just totally had an old memory just then, like when I was really little and was just holding one of his fingers.”

Irwin said she wished her father could see the performance and understand just how much he is missed.

“I wished that he could fully understand how much he’s done for me and how much I miss him,” she said.